Tea Party getting too hot for U.S. — poll

The Tea Party may be heating up Washington, D.C., but Americans are cooling to the militant conservative movement that has turned the head of the Republican Party, according to the new CBS News/New York Times poll.

The CBS/NYT survey first asked what people thought of the Tea Party in April of 2010. Twenty-one percent had a favorable view, 18 percent were unfavorable, 14 percent undecided, and 46 percent hadn’t heard enough to make up their minds.

As of August of 2011, however, 20 percent view the Tea Party favorably, but those holding an unfavorable opinion has more than doubled to 40 percent. Eighteen percent are undecided, and those who haven’t heard now number just 21 percent.

The poll asked: “Do you consider yourself to be a supporter of the Tea Party or not?

Just 18 percent answered Yes, with 73 percent saying no.

Answering a third question, 43 percent of those surveyed said the Tea Party has too much influence over the Republican Party. Seventeen percent said too little, with 24 percent believing it is exercising the right amount of influence.

The Tea Party saw about 30 of its champions elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, along with new Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah and Rand Paul, R-Kentucky.

But such movement-backed GOP Senate candidates as Ken Buck in Colorado and Sharon Angle in Nevada proved too extreme for voters in their states. Tea Party activists are already at work trying to purge two Republican senators, Sen. Dick Lugar in Indiana and Orrin Hatch in Utah. Hard to believe, but Hatch is seen as not conservative enough.